File measure of the success of a mobile phone company is in the number of people it can entice into investing in a set. The result is a flood of cell phones in people’s hands. The desire to become the owner of one of these infernal instru­ments ignores the dangers they may impose. Yet a laboratory study has shown that radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damages DNA. Although the scientists behind the Study said more research was needed to determine the actual effect of mobile_ phones oil health, the mail who led the Study team said people should use landlines wherever possible, rather than mobiles. And children should only use mobile phones in emergencies. Yet a mobile in the hands of children are now a common sight.An item in the UK Daily Mail said, we love our mobiles… This we must echo. But are we being told all the facts about how safe they are? Anyone who is aware of the dangers have continued doubts over their safety. Could they cause cancers in the brain? Does living near a mobile phone mast raise your risk of other cancers?

Despite official reassurances, we still do not seem to be any closer to a definite answer. But a major UK report eight-years ago warned that children could be espe­cially vulnerable to mobile phone emissions because of their thinner skulls and developing nervous system. Professor Lawrie Challis, chairman of the MTHR programe said: “There’s no evidence for immediate or short- term health effects” - though lie added there was a “slight hint” of increased risk of brain tumor among long term us. There have not been any official studies oil children, hilt because children have been shown to react differently to en­vironmental stimuli, Professor Challis said it was “possible that they were at greater risk.” Although the advice to parents is to limit children’s use of mobiles, and ensure that those under the age of eight do not use them at all. For some experts, this warning does not go nearly far enough.

The German government takes a more cautious line. Last September, the German environment ministry recommended that people should keep their exposure to radiation as low as possible by replacing wi-fi with a cabled connection. In 2006, the city of Frankfurt decided not to install wireless systems in schools until there was more health research, In Austria, there is a much greater level of professional concern about the pos­sible dangers.

Three years ago, the Vienna Chamber of Doc-Mrs put up more than 21,000 posters in surgeries and other places with very specific warnings about mobile phones, such as: “Use your phone as little as possible” and “Men - never keep a phone in your trouser pockets as it call reduce fertil­ity.” A study reported last month found that out of 360 men attending all infertility clinic, those who used their mobile themost had the poorest sperm quality.Last October, two Swedish professors pulled together the results of 11 studies involving people who had used mobiles for more than a decade and found they were 20 per cent more likely to develop a benign tumour in the inner ear, and 30 per cent more likely to develop a type of brain tumor known as a malignant glioma.

And a group of 25 international scientists -known as the BioInitiative Working Group - found evidence for a raised risk of brain tumor from mobile phones, and also expressed concern about a possible raised risk of breast can­cer, changes to genes, and inflammation in the blood vessels associated with conditions such as heart disease. And eight­een months ago, nearly 50 scientists at a meeting of the Inter- national Commission for Electromagnetic Safety in Bene­vento, Italy, said, there was now evidence that long-term use of mobile phones could raise the risk of cancer in children and brain tumors. They called on governments to tell people about the potential risks of mobile and cordless phones, and to limit their use by children and teenagers. A researcher in Milan has also discovered that one minute on a mobile phone destroys the production of melatonin for a week. But mobile phones are not going to go away, but we could do more to acknowledge the possible problem so people call make an informed choice about using them and call learn to deal with the effects?

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